Chapter 1

Haley’s turn:

Interesting. Stoney and Bill flew off to meet a prospective client, leaving me and Deena and Johanna and little Stoney behind.

They’re staying in a hotel while they’re here, but we’re spending time with them. Like today. Deena and I rearranged some college stuff so we’d have the day with Johanna.

I’m glad we keep a straight house. We gave her the tour. Good day – Deena’s bedroom looked lived in, bed slightly less than perfectly made up, her books were on her desk. The master bedroom was straight, too, with a slight surplus of pillows, maybe.

The new, larger shower might’ve raised her questions, but maybe not. It’s luxurious for one person. Lot of fun for three.

There’s that big recliner in the living room, too. Of course, the plausible deniability of it is that it’s sold as a double recliner. I smile just a little bit when I think about how well Deena and Bill and I can fit. That’s what we do sometimes, watching TV, although both of us have ridden him in that thing. We have to be careful for leakage spots, but if I’m doin’ Bill, Deena’s happy task is to make sure that there ARE no leakage spots, something that causes Bill to really come hard.

Johanna put little Stoney on the floor, opened up her baby bag, took a couple of toys out.

“Aiwpwane,” he said, picking up one of them. “Aun’ Cinny.”

“I don’t know why he connects Cindy to airplanes. We ALL fly,” she said. She watched her son. “I’d rather he be here in a real house than crawling around on the carpet in a hotel room.”

“We’re tickled to have you,” Deena said.

We started talking. Conversation rolled from one topic to another, finally landing on Celtic symbology for some reason. We were talking about weddings.

“Celtic symbols ... Well,” she said, “everything today is so homogenous. Mass media spreads the same views over the globe. Why do you think that a Korean girl wants to look like British royalty for her wedding?”

“We avoided that,” I said.

“Yeah. I was there,” Deena chirped.

“My mom and my stepdad. My little half-brother. Deena. And Bill.”

“We had the same dress,” Deena said. “Completely by accident. Bill bought one for her birthday. I didn’t know. I bought one with Mom two weeks before the wedding.” She smiled, looked at me.

“It was the first sign,” I said. “The two of us, both choosing the same dress.”

“We’ve had a lot of those coincidences,” Deena said. “Like the college thing...”

“I’ve heard all about your college thing,” Johanna said. Little Stoney was standing beside her, holding a toy boat.

“No daddy boat...” he said with a big grin.

“His Dad’s – OUR -- boat is a sailboat.”

“Oh. And he’s been on it?” I asked.

“Got the sea in his veins,” Johanna said. “We take him sailing out in the Gulf. We’ve taken him up and down the fjords in Norway with my great-uncle Jan.”

“That’s so cool...” Deena cooed, playing with Little Stoney, tracing a path with the boat across the sofa. “You’re into that Celtic mythology, Cindy says?”

“Oh, Mom raised me with tales of leprechauns and fairies and the Old Ways, but we went to church my whole life, too. I sometimes think that things happen that defy simple explanations.”

“Been that way with us,” I said.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“I can. If it’s not illegal.”

“Oh,” Deena said. “Okay.”

I think that Johanna sensed something. “Too illegal. Take me around the edges.”

“We were studying heredity and DNA in a biology course, so we sent our samples in for analysis – me, Deena and Bill.”

“Those things they advertise all the time?”

“Noooo,” Deena said. “Those things are notoriously inaccurate. We paid a lot more for a professional lab. Two separate ones, actually. The results from the first one surprised us.”

“What kind of surprise?” Jo asked.

“Johanna, all my life I thought Dad was, well, DAD. The DNA tests say he’s not related to me.”

“But the same tests say Deena and I are half-sisters. Same father.”

“Do you know who he is?”

I shrugged. “My mom was kinda in her ‘wild phase’.”

“Mine was cheatin’ on Dad,” Deena admitted.

“I’ve heard worse stories,” Johanna told us. “Tina’s mom...”

“We heard,” Deena said. “It’s a shame. Tina’s such a nice person. And Alan. She doesn’t deserve that.”

“Not a matter of what a person deserves,” Johanna said. “The world revolves, fate directs, and it’s very random.”

“Do you know how old Cindy was when she got married?” Deena blurted.

Johanna arched one of those light red eyebrows. “Well, yes ... Fourteen. Youngest married person of the bunch. Let’s see. Nikki – fifteen. Dana – just barely fifteen. But Cindy’s the youngest.”

“That’s sort of the thing, Johanna ... Cindy, at fourteen, determined the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with,” I said. I glanced at Deena.

Jo smiled. “Yes. It’s perfect for her. Five years later, she’s on top of the world.”

“So somebody that age can make that determination?”

“I think so. Worked for Cindy. Worked for all those – well, my sisters. So yes. Possible.”

“We have a situation. Did you meet Carlita and Brindy and Dave?”

“Yeah. 3Sigma tried to recruit him. I understand that they formed a special family unit. Is that what your point might be?”

“Here’s a wedding picture, Jo,” I said. There in the picture was Bill, of course. Me. Deena. My family.

“Cute. Same dresses, though. Kind of hard to say who got married, huh?”

“Yes,” Deena said softly. “Does it freak you out?”

“You’re fourteen. You know how dangerous that is?”

“And we trust you. You’re part of the Sisterhood.”

Johanna sighed heavily. “Look. Secrets ... Deena ... you and your dad? I mean...”

“It’s like I was living with him and loving him and treating him like my dad, but all along, deep inside I think I knew...”

“But Haley...” she questioned.

“We became best friends over the last four years since I’ve known her,” I said.

“I was a brat at first, but Dad made me act decent towards Haley and we just connected. I’m not – wasn’t – a closer friend to anyone on the planet,” Deena told her. “And I just knew when Dad said he was getting married, that it was Haley. They just belong together. And then I moved in with ‘em.”

“You still call him ‘Dad’, Deena. Isn’t that kinda strange?”

“I’ve called him that my whole life,” Deena said.

“Haley, you’re okay with this?”

“I understand totally. It’s ... It’s hard to explain, but when Deena started kind of hinting, I just saw it as the way things were meant to be.”

“So the three of you...” Johanna said.

Jo sighed again. “I guess I’m more open-minded. Is it obvious? I don’t have, like, a tattoo or anything that says ‘Johanna is the one to talk with’.”

“Nobody knows,” I told her. “Well, Carlita and Brindy do.”

“So does Dave,” Deena said. “Dad talked with him about it.”

“What’s Dave say? I’m thinking it didn’t involve high fives and chest-thumping.”

“Told Bill that sometimes love goes in strange directions.”

“I understand that. Kim’s two aunts...”

“I heard they’re a hoot,” Deena smiled.

“But Haley, okay, you’re legally married. That’s safe. Deena ... You’re fourteen. That means felony if anybody were to find out.”

“We know,” Deena said. Now it was her turn to sigh. “When we’re out in public, it’s Dad and Haley, with me looking like I’m tagging along. Haley’s got a ring. Dad’s got a ring. We’re a family...”

“Necklaces,” Johanna said. “What we started talking about. Rings are just ONE tradition. They’re easy and they’re pretty much universally recognized. But for you three, something different that at least you two can wear.”

“And something Bill can wear on special occasions,” I said.

She reached in her baby bag and pulled out her iPad. “Lemme show you something.”

We scooted closer to her.

“I thought about a simple gold chain with three gold beads ... You could say it’s for family, but leave it at that for people who don’t need to know more ... But you’d know.” She giggled, blue eyes laughing. “And I’d know. But I will swear an oath ... and we Celts take our oaths seriously.”

“Or,” she continued, “try this...”

“What’s that?” Deena asked.

“That twisting, twining thing, that looks reminiscent of Celtic or Runic...”

“Right, right and right,” our redheaded friend said brightly. “Also Japanese. In the European version, there’s also a tradition within Christianity. So people will be able to go in several directions. But to us, it’s an eternal loop with three lobes, for the three of you. And if I was really into the Old Ways, I’d do a casting to bind you ... But if your own hearts don’t do that already, the spell would be worthless.”

“I like it,” Deena said.

I nodded in agreement. “Where can we get three of them? Pendants for chains.”

“Mom knows a jeweler. Real gold and silversmith. I can get you his name.”

“Oh, do, please.”

“Lemme send her an email. I’ll forward the answer. Uh, custom work. Costs...”

“We saved on the wedding and we saved on the honeymoon and I didn’t get a huge stupid engagement ring.”

“Oh, it will be less than that, but craftsmanship has a cost,” Jo told us.

“Oh, we understand that,” I said.

“Deena,” she said, “sweetie, you HAVE to be careful, though. One slip, I can’t begin to imagine the horrors. Has Cindy told you about her and Dan getting arrested in Tennessee a couple of years ago?”

“No,” Deena answered. I shook my head.

“They did. Well, Dan did. Cindy was the poor unfortunate waif led astray by the evil pervert.”

“What happened?”

“Cindy’s adopted grand-dad called his son, who’s an Alabama district attorney. He called the DA in the county where Dan was arrested. Got the charges dropped because they were bogus in the first place. Dan and Cindy used to carry paperwork. Now that she’s above the age of consent, they don’t. But you, Deena ... no way ... Statutory rape AND incest.”